Girls just want to have fun!

These girls have quite an imagination and are always thinking of fun things to do. If I were their age I would definitely want to be friends with them!! They can be found crafting, playing spa, painting nails, riding bikes, playing "pioneer", putting together fashion shows, creating a restaurant.....the list is endless!

One day they wanted to create a restaurant and serve our family lunch. They put together menus and made the food. I had to assist them just a little but for the most part they did it!
On one of our many snow days they threw together a fashion show. I didn't help with any of it. They hung of a sheet for their curtain, put on music, and had several costume changes - not to mention they did their make up too. Don't you love these girls?!?!

Our newest piano player

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When I went upstairs the other day I left Jane in the family room playing with toys. When I came back down this is how I found her. A chair had been left by the piano from lessons the night before and she pushed it close enough to the paino and climbed up and started playing. It took me off guard. I wasn't expecting to find Jane at the piano when I came down. She is growing up too fast!

It's warming up......can't you tell?!??!

This picture cracks me up! Last week it "warmed up". We were all happy to see the sun and feel some of it's warmth. The kids were playing outside a lot last week. I looked out my window and couldn't help but smile and couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap this shot. This is how desperat we are to be outside. They are sitting on a pile of snow!! I can't imagine what MN will be like!!

Happy Shopping!

Last week I decided to let Jane have a try in this shopping cart. Even though Lucas always sits in it I have not let Jane do it for fear of her never wanting to return to a normal cart at other stores that don't have carts like this. I guess I had a moment of weakness and my heart was softened as I thought of how much she'd LOVE to ride in this cart! And she did indeed love it and was ALL smiles and didn't want to get out when we got to our car!! It was pretty cute and she thinks she is such a BIG girl. The buckle will have to go on next time because while in the check out lane she thought she should be allowed to get in and out which she is not very good at!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan reminded me how exciting a birthday can be for a young child. The days leading up to his birthday were filled with lots of birthday chatter from him. "Are you still planning to hang the balloons up in the family room like you always do?" "Are you remembering I want chocolate cake?" "Have any cards come in the mail for me?" "Can I please go check the mailbox one more time?" "What do you think Grandma is going to send me?" (referring to both grandmas) "Have you bought my birthday present yet?" (he didn't really like when I told him I had and knew he'd have lots of fun playing with his new barbie house!)
The night before his birthday he hardly slept. He woke up several times in the night wanting to know if he could open his presents. Later he came in to tell me his stomach hurt. I told him to go potty and go back to bed because I think he was more excited than sick. About 10 minutes later he woke me again to tell me that indeed i was right and he was just excited - not sick. By the time morning rolled around I was worried with all the excitement he might be let down. However, he seemed to have a great birthday. Isn't it nice to be a kid?
We did a family birthday this year and took the kids out to eat for E's bday. But, before dinner we took Ethan to spend some money he got from Grandma S. and then we headed to Build-A-Bear which was our gift to him. He knew exactly what he wanted and had fun picking out an outfit for his wolf and stuffing it. The other kids were so so good to wait for Ethan to make all of his decisions in both stores!

After shopping we went out to eat.....his choice. And of course we found ourselves in McDonalds which is a big treat for our kids. You don't need to look too hard to see that I really have 5 kids....not 4! (oh and you also might notice a couple of chic-a-filet bags on the McDonalds table! Andy and I had no desire to eat McDonalds so smuggled in our own goodness! I must say that was a good call Andy!)

Here is Ethan with "wolfie"

Apparently "wolfie"is part of the family now and had to be present for birthday cake!!
It's hard to believe Ethan is 7 years old!! Our kids are growing up way too fast!!

Happy Birthday......to me!

Seems like my birthday was spread out and celebrated over several days. I won't complain. I loved hearing from so many friends and family and appreciated some unexpected gifts from friends and family. Thanks to everyone who made it a great birthday!!

Andy took me to the Blue Man Group which happened to be several days before my birthday. I didn't know what to expect. I had heard of them but that's about it. I enjoyed the show and was entertained throughout! Luckily we were able to go given an ice storm hit the day of the show. Our babysitter couldn't make it to our house due to ice so Sara S. pulled through and was kind enough to babysit for us while we braved the roads (which turned out to be fine) and enjoyed the show. We also enjoyed going out to dinner on Friday night. 2 dates in one week.....not bad!
I got some great gifts this year but this was a GREAT surprise and meant a lot to me. My grandma and grandpa T. send some money each year. This year it came in this card which was better than the money. It is a copy of a picture my Grandpa painted several years ago and my grandparents made it into a birthday card. It was a nice surprise and meant a lot. This is a painting of a reunion spot we went to one year when I was young. I have fond memories of this reunion and love that it has my grandpa fishing and the car they use to have. Love it!
And life in B-town would just not be the same without these great ladies (and some are missing in this picture). Mindi, Jen, Amber, and Joy brought lunch over on my birthday. It was fun and meant a lot to me.

We're moving!

It's official!! In the spring we will be moving to Minneapolis!! Andy accepted a job with 3M!! We are looking forward to experiencing life in a new city and living close to my brother's family!I'm grateful to Andy for all his hard work in getting interviews and job offers. It's nice to have finally made a decision and we're feeling excited!

What is it with babies and shoes?

In the last several weeks Jane has taken a liking to shoes - especially shoes with a heel. She loves clomping around in Lucy'sold plastic princess shoes and I know she is thinking she is pretty cool!


This picture is funny because here she is wrestling with her brothers (which she does often) but still has her heels on!!

No crawling for this girl!

Jane thinks she is such a big girl. She has never crawled down our stairs. No that would be too babyish. She insists on walking down the stairs and given we have a lot of stairs with a tile floor at the bottom it scares me every time she comes down the stairs.

Lucas finally graduated from nursery and here he is on his first day of primary!!

Really, another snow day?!!?!??!

Yes, that is the grass that you see but YES we did have a SNOW DAY today!! Only B-town would cancel for this kind of snow!! Honestly I might go a little crazy. I mean don't get me wrong. I love a good snow day but we've had a few too many of them lately. Last week the kids had 2 days off for snow. Then we had monday off for a holiday and Tuesday for a teacher development day. The kids went back to school yesterday. They were off for this ridiculous amount of snow and no joke they will probably not be in school tomorrow. That's just how it works here!! I might not mind so much if we had a slightly larger home but we really are on top of each other and I think it is time for the kids to go back to school!! Imagine how long school would be canceled if we had a real snow storm!

Look who turned 4!!

Lucas turned 4 and had his first birthday party! He wanted a Buzz Light Year party so with Andy's help we put together a fun party. Lucas was one happy boy! It's hard to believe he is already 4!!

Lucas, Maggie, Jenna, Harrison, Makenna, and Ben

We played lots of games. The loved making paper planes and having contests to see who could fly it the farthest.The limbo was also a big hit and they are actually good at it because they are all so little!

Cell Phones

So, over the past several days I have noticed Lucy asking me questions. A lot of questions. Questions like "Mom, when did you get your ears pierced?
"Mom, how old were you when you started driving?"
"Mom how old were you when you started wearing make-up?"
"What about lip gloss? Could you wear that sooner than make up?"

All of her questions are obviously in hopes of trying to figure out when she will be able to do certain things or to find out when she can start bugging us about allowing her to do those things.
Yesterday her question was, "Mom, when did you get your first cell phone?"

I think she was excited for my answer....until she heard it.
"4 years ago"

She was in disbelief!
"Well we didn't have cell phones when I was young. They didn't even exist"
She thought that was odd but it gave her a bit of relief to think perhaps she didn't have to wait until she was almost 30 to get a cell phone!!

Who stole the candy from the candy box?

While at my parents house I caught Jane on several occasions stuffing her face with chocolate. She discovered the table that treats were on and would so slyly make her way to the table and grab treats as fast as she could. One afternoon while I was playing a game with kids and realized Jane was pretty quiet this is how I found her! Now really, what could make a little girl happier?!??! She wasn't so happy when I took the candy away and ended all her fun!

Happy New Year

After being in California we flew to Utah where we spent the New Year with some of my family. It was great seeing everyone! We played lots of games, ate, shopped, went sledding, and exercised. It was nice and relaxing. Sad to see it come to an end.

We had fun bringing in the new year with a party for the kids (that happened well before midnight!)



Perhaps Lucy should have been my mom's daughter. Lucy loves to clean and organize and became my mom's sidekick while at my parent's house. She LOVED following grandma around cleaning and decorating for our New Year's party. Where was I? Well, I came down with that wonderful flu that had been going around in California so I slept most of the day but came out to be with everyone at night. This is how I found my mom and Lucy!
And it wouldn't be the new year without a giant breakfast the next morning. It's tradition that my mom and dad do a nice breakfast for anyone who is in the house each new year. So yummy!!
There is always some GREAT sledding at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They live on a mountain so they of course have a great sledding hill. The guys went out ahead of the kids and built up the course and a big starting ramp. I must say I was pretty impressed. I think it may have been the best made course so far!

Grandpa, Ethan, and Andrew

Andy and Lucy

This was taken from inside. Ethan got going a bit too fast and didn't get out of his sled soon enough and ended up over the side of the hill and in the trees. It took quite a bit of effort to get out.This is a picture of Lucy, Grandma and Grandpa after a run down the hill.

More cousin fun

Look at these cute baby cousins!! Sophie was so sweet and smiley all the time. Jane and Cole were caught fighting on many occasions. I'd like to blame it on Cole but really Jane had some issues!! Almost anytime Cole would walk into the room or get near Jane she would start screeching. We referred to Cole and Jane as Frienemies throughout the week!


After Disneyland, the weather cleared up and we had fun enjoying the California sun!


The kids were just going down to look at the beach, play in the sand, and maybe put their feet in the water. Well, they didn't stop at their feet. All the kids had fun at the water and Ethan and Blake went full on swimming!! For those of us from the midwest, it is pretty amazing to be swimming in the ocean in the middle of December!!